[TT] Hybrid Janna

[TT] Hybrid Janna

Introduction: Janna is one of those fun champions that you can really build any way you want. She can effectively be an AP, a DPS, or a tank. She should never be THE AP, THE DPS, or THE tank, however, as there are many champions who can fill these roles far better. What can Janna do better than any other champ? Support. Her abilities have the potential to alter the game more than those of Lux, Soraka, or any other support champ. Combined with her ability to hybridize into offtank, off-dps, or off-AP, Janna has the potential to be MVP every single game. Now I'm going to tell you how.

Table of Contents:
1. What you need for every single Janna build ever
2. Things that are nice to have when playing Janna
3. Janna's Abilities
4. AP Janna
5. DPS Janna
6. Tank Janna
7. Who to watch out for
8. TT Specific Guide
NEW: The Janna-Juke Challenge

1) What you will need for every single Janna build ever

a. 40% Cooldown, or as close to it as possible. I usually manage 39%.
b. Flash. It is better than ghost because speed starts to curve off after 500. Flash can be used to initiate with your ultimate as a tank, or to get out of many difficult situations.
c. Speed quints. I don't care what you believe about runes, speed quints are the most useful rune in the game. With speed quints, Janna will likely have 477 or 483 move speed.
d. Nine points in the offensive tree, leading up to 15% magic pen.

2) Things that are nice to have when playing Janna

a. Flat cooldown reduction glyphs and mana-regen/5/lvl seals.
b. Cleanse. Combined with flash, you can actually be a tank, an initiator, and invincible. Always take cleanse unless you tank. Always.
c. 21 defense points or 21 utility points. Either build is great, and I have used both builds with every Janna form. The difference is 6% cooldown. With defense, you need to build 30% cooldown items; with utility, you need to build 25%.

3) Janna's Abilities

Passive: Tailwind. 3% more speed for everyone on your team. Your first of many gifts to your teammates. They won't thank you for it...at least not right away.

Q: Howling Gale. You toss up enemies in a straight line and do negligible damage. .75 AP scaling. Always take one level of this skill at level 1, and always max it last. Spam this skill to initiate from a distance.

W: Zephyr. You slow the enemy by up to 48%. .8 AP scaling. Passive bonus gives you a ridiculous speed boost, but ONLY while the skill is charged! This means NEVER zephyr someone while running away, unless they're alone. And never never NEVER zephyr Yi or Olaf while running away. Max this skill first on AP and Tank Janna.

E: Eye of the Storm. Your target gets a shield AND up to 50 damage. .9 AP scaling on the protection. This is what makes you a potential DPS. Cast it on yourself for low-risk kiting, cast on your carry to give them MORE damage than a BF sword, cast on someone who's weak to save their life. Max this first on DPS Janna, or second otherwise.

R: Monsoon. You push away your enemy and can channel a heal for 4 seconds. .35 AP scaling. Your panic button if you're not very good with Janna, and overall a great move to wreck enemy positioning. Good to use when your allies are low and you want to keep a push going, but don't rely on it as a heal and don't think of it as a heal. Warning: This WILL NOT WORK on an ulting Olaf. If you're against Olaf, just run, wait for his ult to wear off, and then cc-spam him. Placing a Gale is a good way to tell if he's still ulting.

4) AP Janna

Advantages:
-Very strong shield.
- Rylai + Zephyr is incredible.
- You will still be rather tanky.
- You can farm with an uncharged gale.
- You just hurt more in general.
- The enemy team will view you as a threat and target you.Disadvantages:
- Rather bad scaling late-game
- It is somewhat difficult to get all the cooldown reduction you need.
- Not much utility, and you are little help to your team late-game other than nuke, disable, and shield.
- The enemy team will view you as a threat and target you.

If you read the ability section, I already said max Zephyr first, Eye second, and Gale last. Get Gale at level 1, monsoon at level 6, and then save them til later.

Necessary items:
Catalyst the Protector, which eventually builds into RoA or Banshees as needed
Nashor's Tooth for 25% OR Morello/Ionian boots for 35% (or Morello+Swiftness to end with 35% instead of 40% CDR)
Boots of Swiftness (unless you go Ionian/Morello)

Your build should begin: Mana manipulator + 2 HP potions
First trip back you should get Catalyst + as much of your boots as you can (because you get Zephyr first, you don't NEED boots until much later, as you will have a boots 3 bonus with 5 in Zephyr)
After that, build however you want, and keep Catalyst as long as you need it.

Gameplay:
During the laning phase, you want to kite with autoattacks and zephyr. Generally your combo is zephyr, howling gale, shield the carry, autoattack. This will get you easy assists. Zephyr is a very powerful nuke early-game, even with no AP, and everyone expects you to go shield first, so abuse this power while you have it. You are one of the most powerful things on the map at level 1-6. Most importantly, do NOT try to steal cs. You will get more than enough gold from assists. If your ally is gone, get cs. If he's there, just harass.

During team-fight phase is when you really shine. Shield the person who needs it, and try your best to be bait. With cleanse+flash+ult up, you can get out of anything unless the other team is super-fed. With your Q, disable as many as you possibly can, and slow the target your team is aiming for. More likely than not, they will die. Shield your carry, or whoever is doing the most physical damage to the target. If your carry is off ramming his sword up the tank's butt, don't shield him.

Late-game, you really become laughable in terms of damage, but you are still a strong support. AND if you used your early/mid-game advantage well, you are going to be far ahead of the other team by this point. Just keep popping in those support spells as needed. You should be tanky enough to initiate with flash/cleanse/ult at this point, so feel free to do so. If you die, 4 useful members of your team are still in a position to kill at least one or two, if not get an ace. But you won't die, because you're Janna.

5) DPS Janna

Advantages:
- VERY high damage per second. I've gotten around 300 damage, 1.7x per second, with my shield up.
- Unexpected. Nobody expects Janna to dish out damage of any variety.
- Extremely annoying early-game, perhaps one of the best harassers.
- The enemy team will see you as a threat and target you.Disadvantages:
- Very situational. Best used if you have a healer in your lane, or if there is only one other AD champ on your team.
- Very squishy early-game, and it's easy to get too aggressive and die. Thus the necessity of a healer.
- Very easy to forget that other people need your shield too
- Horrid mana regen until you get Tear+Nashor
- Very little on-hit proc, and very little armor-penetration unless you go out of your way to get it.
- Rather strict build most of the way through the game, IF you want to be support AND DPS (which you do if you're reading this guide)
- The enemy team will see you as a threat and target you.

Necessary items:
Tear -> Manamune
Nashor's Tooth + Boots of Swiftness/Merc Treads/Ninja Tabi for 25% CDR
OR Youmuu's Ghostblade + Ionian Boots of Lucidity for 30% CDR and a 21/9/0 or 9/21/0 build
Frozen Mallet (You NEED this for defense or you will die all the time)

Nice items to have:
Guinsoo's Rageblade (AP+DPS+Damage, allows you to be a bit more of a hybrid)
Last Whisper (Armor-pen, but not too much DPS in and of itself – by the time you get it, you will want more DPS, not more damage – a good last item, perhaps)
Starks Fervor (A little armor pen, and a lot of attack speed boost)
Madreds Bloodrazor (Works well with your innate 15% magic pen – a GREAT item to have for doing the most damage per second)
Phantom Dancer (Speed boost, attack speed boost, and crit)
Black Cleaver (attack speed plus awesome damage boost)
Atma's Impaler (goes well with Frozen Mallet, makes you a lot tankier

Items you do not want:
Infinity Edge (you have PLENTY of damage, you need to hit as often as possible)
Hextech Gunblade (Don't take your hybridness this far – Guinsoos is a better choice, and far cheaper)
Trinity Force (Very expensive on top of an already costly build, and you already have a mallet)
Hexdrinker (You have a shield.......)

You want to start with Meki + 2 HP potions.
First trip back, get Boots 1 + Tear of the Goddess. Then finish boots and build Nashor or Youmuu. If you're dying a lot, build Phage/Mallet next, if not finish Manamune.

Gameplay:
Early game, you want to pop shield on yourself and potshot your enemy. Play the part of support if you have an AD carry in your lane, and let HIM potshot with your shield instead. Be careful, it's very easy to get overconfident and die. Do not die. If you die a lot, they'll focus you as the “easy kill” and you'll never get ahead. You don't want to be focused til later, when you're prepared for it. Only get cs if you are with a support champion. This is a more item-dependent build, so you need the extra gold. So make sure your teammate does not need that much. If you're with a carry, play support and build slower, or your team will suffer.

Mid-game, use your skills to disable as many people as possible, while DPS targeting the squishiest person, or the person your team deems most worthy of death. Shield an ally if he needs it, otherwise always shield yourself. Be careful until you get mallet, cuz you'll be squishy.

Late-game, you should have plenty of HP, a TON of damage, and fairly fast attack speed. Abuse this combination to wreck the enemy's towers. With all your escapability, you can easily backdoor and rip through towers.

6) Tank Janna

I saved the best for last. This is easily the most overpowered, game-breaking Janna build, and you will get wins with it.

Advantages:
- Virtually invincible.
- RIDICULOUS amounts of team utility.
- An insane amount of assists.
- Your team will love you.
- The other team will hate you and attempt to kill you, all amounting in failure after failure.
- You can effectively turn a team full of awful players into a dangerous threat.
- Cleanse is not essential.Disadvantages:
- No damage.
- There is a chance the other team might realize you're invincible and ignore you.
- I am going to tell you what items to use and you are going to use them and you are going to LIKE it.
- Expect a lot of harassment from the other team if you DO die. The sort of harassment the people of New York gave to a caged King Kong, not realizing he would soon be free once again.

Gale at 1, Monsoon at 6, max Zephyr first, Eye second, and Gale last. For summoner spells, take whatever your team needs, like clairvoyance or fortify. If you don't need anything, take cleanse. Go 9/0/21.

*If someone else is building this item, sub it for a Guardian Angel or something else tanky

Recommended items (cuz you have ONE slot left and all):
Starks Fervor
Will of the Ancients
Any other aura item I may have forgotten
Guardian Angel
UPDATE: It is now possible to buy two items that upgrade from philosopher's stone, both of which are extremely useful to Janna. If you would like to buy two philosopher's stones and upgrade into the new Tenacity item, go for it. This plus Banshee's Veil seems a good way to fight CC teams WITHOUT a cleanse.

Start with one faerie charm, a sight ward, and as many potions as you think you'll need. I go 2.
As soon as you have 650 gold (as long as your lanemate is doing ok) go back and get a philosopher's stone.
Next, build boots of swiftness.
After that, get a ruby crystal and make it into a kindlegrim. Build this into soul shroud – your second complete item.
Next, finish out your Shurelya's reverie and make sure it is in slot one so you can use the active.
Your 4th item will be Aegis of the Legion. By this point, your team, all together, will be almost unbeatable.
5th item is Banshee's Veil, starting with the negatron cloak.

Gameplay:
Early game, just harass with your zephyr. You won't have any mana regen til after you get philosopher's stone. At this point, get crazy. Harass with your zephyr+shield combination - try to go for someone who has no healing power, and just keep diving the same person over and over again. You will either completely deny that champ, or make them do something stupid. Either way, you win. You have a LOT of HP regen and a decent amount of mana regen. Abuse this. Take hits, get targeted, and get them used to hating you. Do NOT get cs. Between philosopher's stone and your assists, you will have way too much gold as it is. It's also very easy to get a kill or two at this point in the game, just try not to steal them.

Mid-game, be with your team as much as possible. Never be alone, or your aura items are worthless. Shield whoever's hurting, disable as many enemies as possible, and snare kill after kill for your carry. Most importantly, SPAM YOUR SKILLS. Q, W, and E should never be up for more than 1 second in a team fight.

Late-game, tank. I'm not kidding, tank. They'll want to kill you so bad. Give them a chance. Now, I don't mean sit there and let them hit you. No, you'll die. You need to be the target they want more than anything. The target they just might be able to have, if only they could get a little bit closer . . . So run in ahead of your group. Get them chasing you. Watch them fail. Laugh at them as you barely escape and your team gets an Ace. The biggest mistake a team can make is targeting Janna. Why? You have more speed than them. You have a ridiculous amount of escapes. You do no damage and have no kills, so even if you DO die, your team loses nothing but a few auras. And I guarantee you, if the enemy team actually puts forth the effort needed to kill a good late-game tank Janna, they are going to completely overextend and die.

7) Who to watch out for

Master Yi. He can totally wreck you if you're DPS or AP, and he can be a mosquito on your butt if you're a tank. Abuse Q and R to get away from him. If you're against a Master Yi, I would strongly recommend NOT going DPS Janna.

Olaf. Just run, and don't look back. This guy will target you in a team-fight. He'll go straight for you, and do everything he can to get you. If there's an Olaf in your game, you want to go tanky, whatever build you do. Again, vs Olaf, do NOT go DPS.

Nunu. He's crazy hard to lane against because he outharasses you, has near-infinite casts with his passive, and he heals. Best thing you can do is get your shield before zephyr, and make sure he never gets his passive off.

Evelynn. Nah, i'm kidding. The absolute value of Eve is Janna.

8) TT Specific guide

Ok, you're not necessarily going to need cleanse here, cuz there will be a LOT less CC. Generally the way to go is AP or DPS because you need the extra damage. Tanky CAN work, but it's a lot less effective here. If you have two AD carries, go tanky AP. If you have a DPS and an AP tank, go either way. If you have an AP and a tank, be something else.

The key to TT games is ganking and catching enemies off-guard, and Janna, with her speed, is especially good at this. Many will tell you that Janna is next to useless in TT, when the reality is she's one of the most useful champions to pick. In 5v5s, you can guarantee that one or two enemies die, and then it's a 3v5. Here, if you can guarantee one or two die, it's a 1v3. Once you have a few levels in Zephyr, or your boots, you want to gank as often as possible. Never stay in your lane for long, never let them know where you are. If you're DPS, jungle after you get Nashor/Manamune. You can use your ult much more offensively here. It is very easy to push enemies over walls and through the jungle, completely throwing them off. If you can make a 3v3 into a 1v3 or 2v3 just by pressing R, you've already won. Mid/late-game, try to be near your carry whenever possible. Take them by the hand and gently lead them through the game. Afterwards say “good job, it was all you!” But you know the truth, Janna. You know the truth.

A Final Note

If God played League of Legends, He would play Janna. Why? Because she's not there to carry you through to the win. She's not going to do it for you. But she will protect you, guard you, and allow you to do things far greater than what you could ever do without her. A team that respects their Janna player will most likely win, and a team that does not will most likely lose. And last, but not least, because if you try to take down Janna, you are most likely going to fail horribly, even if you kill her. But playing Janna can definitely give you a a bit of a God-complex. If someone dies, you'll blame yourself, and if you lose a game, you'll feel like a failure. Bear this all in mind as you play the most useful champion in League of Legends. It's a thankless job.

The Janna-Juke Challenge

It has occurred to me that on the Twisted Treeline map, it might be possible for Janna to completely troll an enemy team at the dragon. Here's the thought: Say your team comes upon Trynd soloing the dragon. What's Trynd usually do? Endless, kill the dragon, escape through the wall. But Janna might - MIGHT - be able to Q+R Trynd right over the wall as your team approaches. I don't know how much actual purpose such a trick could serve, but it sounds like a great way to infuriate an enemy team. If anyone can get video proof of this occurring, I'll give you credit and link the youtube video in my guide. On that note, if you get video footage of any good Janna wall-jukes on TT or otherwise, let me know and I'll link them in my second post.

i've tried it, she does! janna's almost impossible to kill on 3v3s provided your teammates don't feed horribly. not to mention, she can completely wreck trynd and singed early game, with absolutely nothing they can do to stop her.

Maybe some of this is useful at low elo. At mid or high level elo Janna is played so that she gives farm to her laning partner and makes due with very few items. She's a poor farmer and rarely gets kills, so her best role is to help the other 4 teammates level up, and use her utility from a safe distance. Her ult should never be used to initiate. Use it to save, and stay in the background at all times.

Good point about CDR. I use CDR glyphs, Ionian boots and a soul shroud for 39.89% with masteries.

that's...how i play her. i average about 40 cs per game, and usually about 20 of that is from late-game farming pushed lanes. if i failed to make that point, i'll edit it in now. janna should absolutely not be getting cs. the money comes from philosopher's stone+assists. as for playing safe, that's all well and good, but you have within janna a champion that can easily get out of almost any situation as long as she knows where enemies are positioned. sure, she can be played rather effectively staying behind her teammates, but she's also extremely good bait so long as she has a few of the tanky items. AP/DPS Janna should not be baiting.

i'll be editing out the initiate parts, that shouldn't be in there. it's nice for low-elo to scare the hell out of them, but is more of a nuisance for your own team when playing decent champions. i don't agree with your statement that the ult should ONLY be used defensively - it often works very well to secure one or more kills, or to completely wreck an aoe team's positioning in a team fight. you have to think of each of janna's abilities in both offensive and defensive terms to really be good with her.

anyway, this was written from a mid-elo rank. i first wrote it from a low-elo rank and then completely reworked it after i got better. so, when i get to high-elo, perhaps the guide will get another touch-up.

Maybe some of this is useful at low elo. At mid or high level elo Janna is played so that she gives farm to her laning partner and makes due with very few items. She's a poor farmer and rarely gets kills, so her best role is to help the other 4 teammates level up, and use her utility from a safe distance. Her ult should never be used to initiate. Use it to save, and stay in the background at all times.

Good point about CDR. I use CDR glyphs, Ionian boots and a soul shroud for 39.89% with masteries.

Well this is also a guide for 3v3 and in my opinion no champion should be relegated to pure support on TT.